The owl at last! Oh, and lions.

Have I mentioned the owl?  That we have not seen properly yet?  That we keep trying to see, but another car scares it off?  Every day?  While you are trying to remember, enjoy the sight of a nyala mother and baby.

Nyala 

Yes, we saw the owl!  It was in its hole when we got there, with the youngster, and flew out after just a minute.  I was sad but scanned the woods, just in case it was closeby.  It was!  That is the closest I have  ever come to spotting an owl!  There is was!  So gorgeous.  Then it started getting mobbed by helmet shrikes.  They were too fast for a good picture, but you can sort of see one in this shot.

African Wood Owl, Red-billed Helmet Shrike

And this one.  It wasn't until looking at the pictures later and realizing that it had a baby in its hole that it made any sense for it to stick around.  Those shrikes were dive-bombing it, and it looked like they just hit the owl a few times!

African Wood Owl, Red-billed Helmet Shrike

Poor owl.  I just wanna squeeze it and cuddle it!

African Wood Owl

 Okay.  Moving on.  A bee-eater!  I have not tired of these gorgeous fellows either.

Little Bee-eater

 Lions!  This is what a comfortably snoozing lion family looks like.  It looks exactly like a jumble of stuffed animals, only more deadly.  Do they really look comfortable to you?  Well they managed to sleep regardless.

Lions

Lion

Lions

Lion

Lions

Lions

Lions

Hahahaha, this one is yawning but looks like it's trying to catch snowflakes.

Lion

 We left the lions and went in search of a leopard.  And we did find one, sadly it went under the fence and was now on the wrong side.  Here it is laughing at us.......

Leopard

...... and leaving us behind.  We decided to zoom around to where it would probably cross back over.  The direct route was too muddy, so we started to go around.  Sam told the other car that the road was not drivable, and we thought they were following us to the other crossing point.  But when we got there the other car didn't show up........  Guess where they were?  Yes, that's right, stuck in the mud!  They decided to chance it....... Apparently it was a newish guy, and it takes getting stuck a couple of times to learn your lesson.  We didn't see the leopard again, but we did go back and try to get their car out (no dice).  We took a few of their passengers back with us, and we were so happy to be in Sam's car!  :-)

Leopard